Chinese Firm Hopes to Challenge Japan, Korea with Iranian Supertanker

Published August 19th, 2000 - 02:00 GMT

A Chinese shipbuilder has started work on a 300,000-ton-supertanker for Iran, hoping that this project would help China challange the supremacy of Jap

A Chinese shipbuilder started work on Friday on a 300,000-ton-supertanker for Iran, reported Tehran Times newspaper, adding that the project could help China challenge the supremacy of Japan and South Korea in building such ships.

Representatives of the National Iranian Oil Tanker Company, which has placed a 370-million-dollar order for five supertankers, attended a ceremony in the northeastern port of Dalian to mark the cutting of the first plate by Dalian new ship, the daily said.

China's largest ever ship order was financed by export credits totaling 325 million dollars from the Chinese Eximbank, said the paper.

The building of the five 300,000-ton oil tankers would enable China to "break the monopoly of Japan and South Korea," a Chinese official was quoted as saying - Albawaba.com